Klopeiner See

The Klopeiner See is small - well under a square kilometre - shallow, and sits in a sheltered hollow in south-east Carinthia with no significant inflow or outflow, and the combination means it heats up faster and further than any other bathing lake in the country, regularly reaching twenty-seven or twenty-eight degrees in high summer, which is the single fact the whole local economy rests on. The shore is consequently dense with hotels, apartments, lidos and a promenade, and in July and August it is busy in a way that has little to do with wilderness. Motorboats are banned. Around it are the Sablatnigmoor wetland reserve with a bird tower, the smaller Turnersee, and the Romanesque church at Sankt Kanzian; the Carinthian Slovene minority is present in the villages around.

What you actually see

• The warmest lake in Austria - reaching twenty-seven or twenty-eight degrees.
• A dense resort shore - hotels, lidos and promenade around a small lake.
• Motorboat-free water - swimming, pedalos and electric boats only.
• The Sablatnigmoor - the wetland reserve and bird tower nearby.

When to go

June to September. A day.

Honest expectations

It is small and heavily built up - this is a resort lake, not a quiet one. July and August are crowded and accommodation is expensive. Most shore access is through paid lidos.

Nearby

The Turnersee and Sablatnigmoor are close; Klagenfurt is north-west.